A teachers guide to selecting the right resources

It's really important for us tutors to make sure we have the right resources for all your learners, like I stated in my last blog - not all learners are the same.

So today we're going to look how you select the right resources for your learners.



Computers and the internet are brilliant! They open up so many different avenues of resources. Podcasts and Vodcasts are a great way to catch your learners imaginations and getting information across. A Podcast is a voice recording, this gives you the oppurtunity for you to talk about certain topics rather than just writing them. Feeling confident you could do a Podcast, well how about giving a Vodcast a go, this is when you record yourself and make it available online. These can be used in a great way, how about interviewing a specialist in your given field, filming it and posting it online, you could even encourage learners to put forward questions too.

These kind of things can be linked through social media pages such as Twitter or Facebook that have been set up for your specific course.

Blogs! You're reading one now, do you think you can write a Blog? Do it, there are so many different and creative ways you can chose from and the internet makes it so much easier.
Power point is a great resource to have readily available. For the tutor it can be a good tool as it allows you to clearly show the learner your aims and objectives of the session, it is also good to be able to give the learners your PowerPoint presentation so they can make notes. This allows the them to make notes as you are going through the slides.

But there is one thing you remember - if you see this.......




you've used too many slides, no one likes death by PowerPoint!



Handouts are a great resource to use as it is something that the learners can take away with them, this can be a recap of something you have already covered, something that emphasises a point you have made or something that is guaranteed a groan, homework!



These handouts will act as revision tools for assignments or exams later on in the course.

Something that is useful to remember is that you need to make your resources inclusive, you need to find out if your learners have specific needs - for example a  learner may be visually impaired, so it may be a good idea to print it in larger font or let the learner have the handouts prior to the lesson.

Find out about your learners! Do they need any specific resource?


Remember what I said in my last blog - people learn in different ways and this is something else you need to remember when selecting your resources. You need resources that will help support every learner in your group - Visual (PowerPoint) auditory (video clips) reading and writing (card games) kinesthetic (demonstration).


It's important that if you're using different teaching techniques that you have everything you need to execute this. For example if you are using floating groups where learners move freely around the room and join in discussions with other learners. The Tutor has set questions on pieces of flip chart paper and the learners add their comments to these, you need to make sure you have everything you need - pens, flip chart paper etc.
The best way of making sure you have the right resources for your sessions is by writing a scheme of work and lesson plan. On these you will have timings, content of the lesson and most importantly, your resource list.

So what's the best way of selecting you resources - think about your learners and remember that everyone is different!